this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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Nixon's sadly successful campaign strategy (media.piefed.social)
submitted 4 days ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 14 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Explanation: Richard Nixon, in the US 1968 presidential campaign, claimed (through campaign proxies) to have a 'secret plan' to end the Vietnam War.

The details of the plan were not elaborated on to the electorate, as they were secret, of course.

He won the 1968 election.

In 1972, despite having still not ended the Vietnam War or made any progress in doing so, Nixon was re elected for another four year term as president.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

At the risk of spoiling a future HistoryMeme, I think a very important part of this story is that as a candidate in the 1968 election he conspired with then mid-level diplomat Henry Kissinger to undermine peace talks (arc). Literal damn treason that cost literally goddamn hundreds of thousands of lives, all because he didn't want to lose a campaign talking point.

e; Oh, and Kissinger was rewarded by being made Nixon's Secretary of State, where he went on to be the Henry Kissinger we all know and are hopefully completely horrified by.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Yep. An election year is, ironically, the best time to get away with treason. The administration knew, but did nothing about it, because they thought the American electorate would see it as 'politically motivated'.

A pattern which would repeat in 1980, 2016, and 2024.

tbf, knowing my countrymen... they probably would. But considering all of those instances resulted in the treasonous actors winning... perhaps they should have rolled the fucking dice.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A pattern which would repeat in 1980, 2016, and 2024

Yep, and so many of the same people were involved in each of them, and every single one should have been in prison or executed.

tbf, knowing my countrymen... they probably would.

I agree with everything else, but I'm not so sure about this. I think if we had said "This is treason" and treated it like what the average American thinks a treason/coup scenario would look like (dramatic and violent, like a tv show where the president is played by Harrison Ford or Kiefer Sutherland) and used whatever force was necessary to put people in jail immediately most Americans would have rallied 'round the flag.

Either way, yeah we definitely should have rolled the dice on it.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 2 points 3 days ago

I agree with everything else, but I’m not so sure about this. I think if we had said “This is treason” and treated it like what the average American thinks a treason/coup scenario would look like (dramatic and violent, like a tv show where the president is played by Harrison Ford or Kiefer Sutherland) and used whatever force was necessary to put people in jail immediately most Americans would have rallied ’round the flag.

I think you underestimate the selective cynicism of the electorate.